Posted by Leo
on 8/28/2009, 4:18 am
The recent U.S. Latin Church Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal was huge in terms of numbers of alleged victims and alleged perpetrators, and also implicated numerous dioceses and religious orders. It probably helped to have the Internet and a much more sensationalizing mainstream media than when I was growing up in that Church. Also tons of money involved in potential lawsuits, settlements, even diocesan bankruptcies. But ISTM it HAD to be that big to "rock" that Church as much as it did.
By comparison, are each of our "jurisdictions" so small that they're easily "rocked" by the controversies of the last decade or so -- the Charter in the GOA, money in the OCA, and whatever the AOA thing currently exploding turns into? These being our 3 biggest ones yet! If we were, and felt ourselves to be, a single, united, relatively stable, larger one -- a single top ruling synod with primate of some kind(s) -- would things like these coming up feel like SUCH a big deal?
Maybe still they would. I don't know, since I have little experience of Church life in Orthodoxy. Just a thought, and maybe another reason to get together somehow?!
Sincerely,
Leo
PS: FYI, surveys say there are about 75 million identifying Catholics in the US, versus Orthodoxy a small fraction of that size -- 1 million, 3 million, 5 million, whatever ... just for comparison re the "size" question above.
PPS: And remember, theologically "scandal's" No. 1 problem isn't bad publicity, shrinking donations, or shrinking congregations, as such ... but souls who see it and become lost.
